Equity and Quasi Equity

SME Finance Forum member, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has collaborated with the and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group to launch the first gender-focused fund for Latin America and the Caribbean. 

The investment, ‘Fund Mujer’ is for up to $200 million and will be made up of 30 percent debt and 70 percent equity, according to the article. 

The fund will focus on female entrepreneurs, companies with a significant share of women leaders, and firms that generate jobs or consumer products for women.

In this study, the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurs (WPSMEE) examined a variety of barriers on the supply and demand side of finance markets that limit SMEs uptake of alternative financial instruments. The study also covers trends in policy measures to support the development of alternative finance instruments for SMEs. According the report, the main areas of constraints for the demand and supply side include:

Demand Side

This analysis provides an overview of the main markets relevant to the EIF. It starts by discussing the general market environment, then looks at the main aspects of equity finance and the guarantee and SME securitisation markets and, finally, it highlights important aspects of microfinance in Europe. A chapter on Fintech also complements the analysis.

EIF research shows that small businesses are increasingly optimistic about the business climate as economic recovery is gaining momentum across Europe.

This analysis provides an overview of the main markets relevant to the EIF. It starts by discussing the general market environment, then looks at the main aspects of equity finance and the guarantee and SME securitisation markets and, finally, it highlights important aspects of microfinance in Europe. A chapter on Fintech also complements the analysis.

The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Kate Carnell, released a report from the Affordable Capital for SME Growth inquiry on June 29.

Launched in April 2018, the inquiry explored the range of international and national initiatives that sought to address the funding gap for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Lenders consider SME’s high risk and offer capital with restrictive terms and conditions, at interest rates few can afford and demand bricks and mortar – usually the family home - as security.

The inquiry examined:

The second major report from GALI, written in collaboration with Deloitte, compares acceleration in emerging markets versus high-income countries. Examining data from more than 2,400 early stage ventures that applied to 43 programs, it finds more similarities between emerging market and high-income country entrepreneurs and accelerator programs than commonly believed.

Even with the robust growth in FinTech, some questions remain unanswered - what spurred the FinTech growth? Is it scaleable? Is it sustainable? How are global economies such as India and China accommodating the FinTech disruption? This intellecap report traces back the evolution of FinTech on one of Africa’s early adopting regions, East Africa and covers the views of various voices in the ecosystem, each providing the uniqueness of the emerging sector, sub-models, their value propositions and feasibility, in an attempt to demystify this complex ecosystem.

ASIFMA, the financial industry’s leading regional trade association, today released its report “Accessing India’s Equity Markets: Reform, Perform and Transform”.  The new report is a  comprehensive analysis providing recommendations on the development of India’s equity markets which are vital to the overall economic growth of the country.  It was released in conjunction with ASIFMA’s first-ever “Accessing India’s Capital Markets” conference in Mumbai, a forum designed to facilitate dialogue around the important issues impacting the accessibility and development of India’s capital markets. 

Crowdfund Insider reports that the annual Alternative Finance & Crowdfunding Barometer compiled by KPMG for the French Crowdfunding Association (Financement Participatif France, FPF) shows that in 2017 the French Alternative Finance market grew by 50 percent, driven by SME lending growth, and came close to the billion euro mark, at €940 million. Crowdfunding, as a subcategory of alternative finance open to retail investors, grew slightly slower at 44%, and equity crowdfunding shrank.